


the little bird

by jelly_spine



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Comedy I guess, M/M, Romance, Spin-Off, narrator taeil strikes again, news flash i also love dojae
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-04
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-09-14 19:48:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9199847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jelly_spine/pseuds/jelly_spine
Summary: Jaehyun embarks on a mission to find out the little bird's identity, his fingers crossed.





	

**Author's Note:**

> spin-off from the toaster and the screwdriver  
> lowkey hastily written  
> p.s. i'll be listening to limitless for the next three decades, that song hit me like a damn bus

 

“I don’t kiss and tell,” Taeil stage whispers, “except I sometimes kind of do, so this boy better listen to what I’m about to say.”

Jaehyun leans back on the kitchen counter, mischievous smile already in place. “Please do tell,” he prompts.

It’s just the two of them in the kitchen; muffled yelps and screams drift from the living room through the paper-thin walls, where everyone else’s converged to play Monopoly. When asked to join, Taeil politely shook his head and announced he had something _very_ important to discuss with Jaehyun. On the way to the kitchen Jaehyun’s eyes kept flickering from left to right, as if to check if someone was following them. Taeil didn’t have the heart to tell him that out of the inhabitants of the dorm the younger himself would have been the only possible eavesdropper.

“A little bird told me Jaehyun has been very, let’s say, _intimate_ with a certain dear friend of ours recently. And this little bird is not exactly happy about it,” Taeil says enigmatically.

Jaehyun blinks, then coughs to cover his surprise. “And who is this little bird?” he asks, trying to coax information out of Taeil.

“Alas!” exclaims Taeil. “I will not provide this eager boy with the information he seeks, no! He will have to find out by himself!”

“And how will I do that?” Jaehyun inquires, his excitement barely concealed and the glint in his eye unmistakeable.

“He seems up for the challenge; adventure thrums in his veins, draws treasure maps into his mind’s great sharp eye!” Taeil lets out a theatrical laugh, slapping Jaehyun on the back. “He shall not fear, for I have left him clues to this mysterious _tweeter_ so eager for his affections!” He then ushers the younger out into the corridor and points to the left. “Look up to the sky and you will find him! Good luck!”

 

 

 

Jaehyun’s first response, of course, is to look up. Taped onto the ceiling is a blue square. He turns to look at Taeil, who’s leaning onto the kitchen’s doorframe, and points. “How’d you get that up there?”

Taeil laughs, waving his hand. “I asked Johnny for assistance, but that’s beside the point. Now Jaehyun must hurry to his prince charming!”

Without looking back Jaehyun sets off. As he walks he keeps his eyes on the ceiling in hopes of finding clues a bit more telling than a simple blue square. Hope thrums in his veins and brings a spring to his step, but doubt casts a long shadow over the glee; the clues might not lead him to who he wishes to see—to someone who doesn’t have a tall, slender frame and a voice like velvet worn smooth on the edges. ‘But then again,’ he tells himself with a smile, ‘who else could it be?’

“Oh!” Jaehyun muses to himself when he comes across a picture of—a Scottish terrier? “What on Earth?”

Jaehyun hasn’t made a lot of progress with figuring out what the clues mean when he finds the third one: an arrow pointing at the window right across Taeyong and Taeil’s room’s door. He stops in the pool of pink-orange light coming through the panes.

Darkness looms on the fringe of the sky as the sun drops below the buildings’ roofs. Jaehyun looks at pigeons perched on the edge of the opposite building’s roof; he wonders what it would be like sitting there (and whether he should go back to the kitchen and snatch himself a cookie or not.)

Before Jaehyun can get up and head back to the kitchen a voice murmurs right by his ear, “He wonders who might be waiting for him at the end of the trail.”

Jaehyun almost jumps off the windowsill, startled by Taeil’s voice. “What the hell!”

Taeil laughs and turns to leave. “Now, he shall follow me to the final clue.”

Obediently Jaehyun trails behind the older, pondering on the previous clues he’s found. Blue, dog, window, he repeats in his head; blue, dog, window. With every step the bustle in the living room draws closer and Jaehyun makes out Yuta screaming something, rivalled by Doyoung’s laughter-ridden voice.

Taeil stops, then turns to Jaehyun. “The hint,” he starts. He stops to clear his throat, “is what he’s wearing, what he’s playing with and where he sits.”

Jaehyun blinks. “What.”

Taeil, however, doesn’t say anything more except “Off he goes!”

Jaehyun pads into the living room, pushed by Taeil’s gentle hands. He stops by the tight circle packed around the board game. His gaze skims over the players, his mind’s voice reciting, ‘Blue, blue, blue— _ah_.’

Jaehyun spots Taeyong sporting a blue shirt and lounging right under the window. The Scottish terrier doesn’t fit the picture, he remarks as he walks towards Taeyong, who looks at him with friendly eyes.

“What did Taeil talk to you about?” Taeyong inquires, gesturing for Jaehyun to sit down.

Jaehyun’s eyebrows knit in confusion, disappointment spreading in his chest like black water seeping into a cloth. He obeys nevertheless and settles down between Taeyong and Doyoung. “Nothing important. He just, um. It’s a secret.”

Jaehyun must look as sullen as he begins to slowly feel as Taeyong asks him if he’s okay and sets a reassuring hand onto his knee. Jaehyun brushes his concern off with a sad attempt at a laugh. Taeyong doesn’t seem to buy it, but doesn’t keep inquiring.

Jaehyun’s already considering getting onto his feet and escaping the situation when Doyoung shuffles a bit next to him, reaching for the dice. After a theatrical shake of his fist he throws them and watches the cubes roll over the board, intent as a predator eyeing its prey. Mark joins Donghyuck in an anticipating crescendo as they wait for the dice to stop.

“It’s his fifth one in a row!” exclaims Donghyuck joyfully once the dice have turned onto their side for the last time. With a huff Doyoung threatens to throw the dice at the younger before he reaches for his piece—

“Dog,” Jaehyun breathes out before he can shut his mouth.

So it was Doyoung after all. Jaehyun can’t keep the smile off his face when he thinks about Doyoung complaining to Taeil about Jaehyun clinging too much to someone else—probably Taeyong. If he could he would grab the older and find out if he tastes as velvety as he sounds right there and then, but he restrains himself.

Doyoung moves his piece he probably had to fight Yuta for and turns to Jaehyun. “Yes,” he confirms, swiping invisible dust off his _blue sweatpants’_ thighs. “It’s a dog. Good remark. Can you name the breed, too?”

“Cut the sarcasm,” intervenes Yuta. “Don’t treat him like an idiot just because he’s a bit _special_.”

Shocked by Yuta’s sudden change from saviour to bully Jaehyun yelps, “Hey!”

The game goes on. Jaehyun contemplates feverishly when he should bring up the whole hey-I-heard-you-were-jelly-and-I-kinda-really-want-to-kiss-you thing, but the older beats him to it. “I need to talk to you after I’ve won against that rascal,” Doyoung whispers, soft as a wisp of wind in Jaehyun’s ear, and indicates Donghyuck.

Jaehyun glances at Donghyuck’s money stash guarded by a rather distracted Mark. “Want me to snatch some of his money?” he asks with a mischievous grin.

Doyoung laughs, loud and high. “If you don’t mind being my partner in crime.”

 

 

 

“Pay up,” Taeil says with a bright smile, holding out his hand. Doyoung’s just emerged from his room, his hair an utter mess and a dreamy darkness to his eyes.

A sigh pushes past Doyoung’s red, kiss-swollen lips. He fishes a rumpled 5,000-won bill out of his pocket.


End file.
